Water. Must keep drinking water.

You know what I find most interesting about New York City? The rats. Okay, maybe not most interesting, but they're pretty damn interesting. They rank up there, if you will.

Anyway, what compels me about these rats isn't so much the rats themselves, but it's the way people react to the rats that make me smile. At the L platform in Union Square and 14th, there is a rat that I've seen on two different nights. I assume it is the same rat, but that's only because it's the same station, he had roughly the same demeanor and was the same size. So, I'm watching this rat, and then he runs out of my sightline, so I stop, and I notice that everyone else on the platform is also watching the rat. And they bend forward so they can see the rat better.

What drives these people to so closely study these rats, I believe (and I've seen this happen on more than one platform, btw), is what drives people to stare at car crashes and the morbidly obese. Except you can't stare at car crashes and the morbidly obese, it's a social faux pas. And, in the case of car crashes, it slows down traffic. But rats? Whatever. Who cares if you stare at a rat for a considerable amount of time? Not the rat. Not the person standing next to you also staring at the rat. No one. Stare away at the little disease-ridden beast.

Some college kid might blog about it, but what's the likelihood that you'll read that? Or that it will stop you from staring at the rats? Perhaps it will encourage you to stare more freely at the morbidly obese (but not at car crashes, I hate gridlock).

Also, the rats here are supposed to be the size of small dogs. Thusfar, they are the same size as my friend Sara's pet rats, which, granted is bigger than say, a mouse or a newborn kitten, but I have yet to see a supersized rat.

I'm a little disappointed.